POSITIVE ADDICTION #9: RELENTLESS CHARITY
I may be a small businessman, but I’m a mega-successful one. And the reason why I’m successful is simple. Remember the line Steve Jobs quoted from Pablo Picasso? “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” I’ve spent my life studying billionaires and billion-dollar multi-national corporations and how they operate. Then I try to replicate.
Here is what I discovered: The richest men and women in the world donate millions of dollars to charity as a way of life . . . and the biggest corporations donate to charity as a way of doing business. Charity is literally built into the DNA and the business plans of the richest people and companies.
Why? Because “doing good” is good for your community and your business too. Everyone wins. When you give away millions of dollars to charity, something amazing happens—tens of millions, or hundreds of millions of dollars come back to you! Charity has a boomerang effect. It makes you feel good, which gives you purpose, which gives you happiness, which gives you energy and enthusiasm, which makes you or your products attractive to others. That’s why when you give, it comes back to you times ten, or one hundred, or one thousand.
Trust me, corporations—especially billion-dollar ones—first and foremost care about themselves and their bottom line. Most public CEOs would sell out their mother for a more profitable quarter to report to stockholders. So if they are giving millions of dollars to charity, you can bet it’s good for business; it’s good for employee morale; it’s good for their brand; and it’s good for profits. If it wasn’t, they wouldn’t do it.
The NFL is a multi-billion dollar brand—one of the world’s most valuable. Branding is all about image. That’s why this macho sports league ties their name to “Breast Cancer Awareness Month” for one month each year and orders NFL players to wear pink.1
The NFL wears pink for one simple reason—because charity is good for the bottom line. Is this about greed or doing good? Who cares? Everyone wins. If the cause of breast cancer prevention and treatment winds up with an extra $250 million, does it matter why? If 10,000 women live because this money extended their lives, does it matter why the NFL raised the money?
How about the National Hockey League? Here in Las Vegas, as I write this book, a billionaire named Bill Foley is trying to bring an NHL franchise to Las Vegas. It looks like he’ll be successful. But as I write this book, it’s still only a goal . . . a wish list. No team has been approved by the NHL yet. But charity is so important to this deal, billionaire Foley has already tied his future team (that doesn’t exist yet) to a Las Vegas charity called “Opportunity Village.”2
To get the new franchise approved by the NHL, Foley needs to get 10,000 season tickets sold. That’s the requirement the NHL set. Well, Foley has agreed to donate $1 for each ticket sold in the team’s first year to “Opportunity Village,” a charity for people with intellectual disabilities. In the interest of disclosure, “Opportunity Village” is a favorite local charity of mine too. I wrote a $5,000 check to them last year.
But this story proves how important charity is to brilliant billionaire businessmen like Bill Foley. Las Vegas doesn’t even have a team yet, but the charity is already in place. Why? Because image is everything in business. Companies want to create “goodwill” in the community. That makes people like you. That makes people feel positive when they see or hear your company’s name. And if they like you, they’ll buy what you’re selling.
Is the charity tie-in good for Foley’s new team? Sure. First the announcement of his charity donation made news headlines. That positive publicity will make more people buy season tickets. “Opportunity Village” even agreed to help promote ticket sales to its donors and friends. So Foley got free promotion in the media, as well as community goodwill. But Opportunity Village stands to make $717,500 the first year of this deal (and quite possibly that much or more money every year moving forward). Everyone wins.
What other major companies give to charity? All of them do. Here are just a few examples from publicly listed information. Kroger supermarket chain gave away over $60 million to charity (in the last year of public disclosure). Safeway supermarkets gave over $70 million. Macy’s department store gave over $40 million (plus they throw one heck of a Thanksgiving parade for kids). Morgan Stanley gave over $50 million. Bank of America gave over $200 million. So did Wells Fargo. So did ExxonMobil. Goldman Sachs gave over $350 million. And Walmart gave over half a billion in a two-year period.3
Other companies donating collectively billions to charity through their charitable foundations include Coca-Cola, GE, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, UPS, MetLife, Merck, Verizon, Google, Pepsi, IBM, and 3M.4
Why do these billion-dollar multi-national companies choose to give millions of dollars away to charity? Because charity is good for image, branding, media promotion, and “goodwill.” And it’s also tax deductible. In other words, charitable giving is good for business and healthy for the bottom line.
Trust me, nothing Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, or Richard Branson does is just for charity. There’s always a profit motive. But who cares? As long as charities receive billions, the world is a better place. Everyone wins.
Small business owners and independent contractors (like you) should follow the same business model. You need to tie your business, career, and product to charity too. If Coca-Cola does it, you know it’s smart.
If you want to be successful, do as the “big boys” do. Promote your tie-ins and donations to the media—just like Coca-Cola does. Tie your donation into your promotion of products—just like Coca-Cola does. Send out promotions to your database trumpeting your favorite charity and how much you’ve raised for the cause. Put it on your business cards and advertisements. Your brand should become synonymous with charity.
There are three ways to donate to charity. The first way is simple: write a check. The second is to volunteer time to a good cause. The third is to influence and inspire others to do the same—your friends, clients, customers, employees, business partners.
I’m sure cynics will say how awful it is that I’m recommending publicizing your good deeds. They are wrong. First, times have changed. This is 2015. No one is afraid to toot their own horn. Billion-dollar companies all scream from the highest rooftops about their charitable giving, why shouldn’t you? Everyone at the highest levels of business understands that if a tree falls in the forest and no one witnessed it falling, it never fell.
Secondly, promoting your good deeds is not only good for your business or career, it’s also good for the charity you are helping. If you donate in silence, no one else would be inspired or “guilted” into doing the same. The more people who find out about your charitable good deeds . . . the more others will be inspired to do the same . . . the more ultra-competitive people will be inspired to give even more than you . . . the more the charity will benefit . . . and the more people in need will be helped. As you promote your good deeds, the charity is branded.
Finally, let’s say that by bragging about your charitable giving, your business dramatically increases (which it will). If you tithe (donate 10 percent of your income) then charity benefits! Your personal giving will double. So you personally give the charity $50,000 instead of $25,000. So tell me again why I should be shy and humble about my good deeds?
Everyone wins when you use your business to help charity. Donating to charity is the definition of the saying, “It’s a win-win.” That’s why RELENTLESS CHARITY is one of my daily Positive Addictions.
Two charities that are of special significance to me are listed below. I hope if you enjoy this book, you’ll make a contribution to my favorite charities:
Camp Soaring Eagle in Sedona, Arizona. This charity provides the healing power of laughter to thousands of seriously ill children by giving them the opportunity to go to a medically supervised camp at no cost to the campers and their families.
You can donate at:
The Rainbow Centre in Burundi, Africa. This charity is a Christian ministry in Burundi, Africa, whose mission is to provide care, treatment and safe keeping of orphaned, abandoned, and HIV positive babies. The ministry was started in 2001 and continues to grow and expand as God blesses and leads.
You can donate at: